Obsidian Entertainment recently released a new internal Q&A with one of the design team from the upcoming Project Eternity RPG. Gameplay programmer Steve Weatherly discussed some of his responsibilities on the project and the unique challenges presented by game development.

Drawing on classics of the genre such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment, Project Eternity will feature character creation, a party of adventurers, tactical "real time with pause" combat, dungeon exploration, and a storyline the developers promise will be compelling.

Q:Steve, can you tell us what you do on Project Eternity?

A: I'm a gameplay programmer primarily responsible for making combat happen. What that means is that I look at what Josh and Tim design for the game, and tell them it can never be done. After that, they tell me it has to get done, so then I figure out a way to make it happen. I spend most of my day writing code, either for AI (to make the enemies act like they know what they're doing), or the underlying code that makes characters fight and take damage, etc. I'm also our chief Reddit ambassador, which I sort of fell into but it has been a lot of fun.

Q:What are you currently working on today?

A: Today I'm actually working on building our equipment system. When I'm done, designers will be able to take a weapon that an artist models and drag it onto a character. The character will then hold it in their hand, swing it, and cause damage to their enemies. My weapon of choice is currently the flail, which Unity made surprisingly easy to create.